Tirtha Atlas

The sacred geography of the Indic world — every site mapped, dated, storied, and cited.

1126 sites15 countries4 traditions30 centuries
Late medieval · Buddhist · Vietnam

Thien Mu Pagoda

Hue, Thua Thien Hue · 16.4536°, 107.5448°

Maitreya Buddha, with Manjushri and SamantabhadraNguyen Lords
Sacred since
1601 CE
first attestation / structure
Standing structure
1601 (Nguyen Hoang)
Nguyen Lords

History & significance

Founded in 1601 on the order of Nguyen Hoang, governor of Thuan Hoa, on a hill above the Perfume River, and enlarged by successive Nguyen rulers in 1665, 1695–96 and 1714. Its cult absorbed an earlier Cham goddess, Po Nagar, under the name Thien Mu, the Celestial Lady; the seven-storeyed octagonal brick tower Phuoc Duyen rises 21 metres over the site. A cyclone wrecked much of it in 1904 and rebuilding began in 1907, and in 1963 it became a centre of Buddhist protest against the Diem government.

Sthala katha — the legend

An old woman in red and blue is said to have appeared on the hill, foretold that a lord would come and raise a pagoda there, and then vanished.

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Sources

coordinates: wikipedia-2026-08-27 · sources retrieved 2026-08-26 · dynasty page: Nguyen Lords